A Stretch Of The Imagination Too Far (If You Could See Me Now - Cecelia Ahern)

Member Name: cherwaite

Product:	If You Could See Me Now - Cecelia Ahern
Date:	09/10/06 (396 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Umm Its Cheap To Buy

Disadvantages: Plotline, Far Fetched, Disappointing

Why I decided to read this book
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As a fan of her previous 2 books, PS I Love you and Where Rainbows End I was more than eager to read this book. Im a chick lit addict and thrive on lightweighted, romantic girly reads so when i saw this in my local charity shop for 50p I jumped at the chance to buy it.

Background on the author
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Cecilia comes from Ireland. This had hugely influenced her work and references to the countryside, people and way of life are prevalent in all her books.She is 24 years old and is the daughter of the Irish head of government Bertie Ahern. All her books have topped the best sellers chart and she has been nominated for Best Summer Read in the Richard & Judy Bookclub for her debut book PS I love you. This book, If You Could See Me Now, has been an international best seller and optioned by Walt Disney to become a musical starring Hugh Jackman.

The Cover
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The cover is easy to spot and is pretty and eye catching. Its is light brown with a white dandelion clock in the middle bottom that has been blown and its bits are swirling around the cover. This is a reference to a main theme inside the book. The Authors name is in bold white font at the top with If You Could See Me Now in pink lettering. The tagline for the book is 'A Helping Hand Can Come From The Most Unlikely Of Places.....'. Ooh how mysterious.

The Plotline
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The book centres around Elizabeth. Elizabeth is a lonely, perfectionist with the weight of the world on her shoulders. She runs an interior design company in a small Irish village where she has lived all her life and everyone knows everyone elses business. She finds this claustrophobic and yearns to escape but is bound there by family commitments and a history that is plaguing her mind.

She is the adoptive parent of her sister Saoirse's son Luke. Saoirse (no idea how that is pronounced!) is a rebellious free spirit who drinks too much, despises the thought of responsiibility and settling down. She only visits Elizabeth and her son if she is in trouble or needs money. This is a constant headache and misery for Elizabeth as she brought Saoirse up by herself from the age of 12 with her father, as her mother was an alcoholic and left the family home. This has obviously had a huge influence on the way Elizabeth behaves. She has never had any love from her mother so she doesnt know how to show love to anyone else. Her days consist of tidying the home, polishing, drinking coffee by the gallon full and sitting alone with her thoughts.

Here enters Ivan. At first he enters the book as Luke's imaginary friend. Luke repeatedly refers to him, plays with him and even wants a plate setting out at the dinner table for him so he can eat with him and Elizabeth. Elizabeth is amused by this and plays along hoping that Ivan will come and go as a phase in Lukes life.

What Elizabeth doesnt realise is that Ivan is from a team of workers that people in this world think of as imaginary, but they acutally do exist to help people in need of a friend or help on Earth. Although only the people they choose can see them and they are invisible to everyone else. Are you still with me?!

Ivan realises that Elizabeth is a lost soul and deeply sad and lonely and goes about trying to help her. He appears to her one day and she mistakenly thinks he is the Father of Lukes Friend. From then on they grow close and he shows her how to have fun, live and love and other cheesy stuff along the same lines as that. This is relevant to the cover as they go in a field chasing dandelion clocks, as you do. Slowly but surely Elizabeth starts to change. She tackles her past, begins to have fun and could their be romance on the cards?

The Plot Line and Characters - My Opinion
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Hugely unbelievable, this was such a disappointment for me. At times I raged at the annoying Ivan, wondered how this ever got published and how it became a best seller. I considered not bothering to finish it but something inside me compelled to continue the torture further!

Ivan is annoying. Very annoying. And somewhat creepy. He is very childlike in the way he acts and speaks but is in the body of a grown man. He never ages. He tells Elizabeth he is from Ekam Eveileb. Make Believe backwards. How she didnt put 2 and 2 together and figure out this is the same Ivan as her adoptive sons imaginary friend i will never know. The way he talks is very child like and simplistic. He spouts cliches at any given opportunity and is a new age hippy in his thinking. He becomes jealous of Elizabeth when she is in contact with any other male which gave me the creeps. Its all very twisted. He is like a hybrid of a kids book/horror film.

Elizabeth is meant to be intelligent. Howcome she doesnt question why no one else sees him? I refuse to believe she is so lost in this world that it doesnt ever cross her mind that he doesnt tell her anything about his family or anything remotely personal and only delves into her past and noseys about her house. Hes a stranger! Why does she let him in so quickly?
Her struggles with her past are done very well, the imagery used and flashback sequences near the end of the book gave it a much needed boost. I thought her relationship with her father, Brendan, could have been focused on more as it was hazed over quickly and gave him the impression of being a mad man.

Luke, the adoptive son of her sister, is deprived of any love or affection from Elizabeth due to her struggles with her past. I found this to be sad that she would carry on the vicious circle. He lives in a sterile environment as Elizabeth is so trigger happy with the anti-bacterial spray he is scared of making a mess. I also believe he is much overlooked in the book.

Final Verdict
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If you are a fan of Cecilia's previous work, I feel you would be disappointed with this latest creation. It lacks the punch, fizz and drama which we are used to and is more akin to a Child bedtime story. It does have a magical feel to it but this is very draining and tiresome about 3 chapters in! Quickly i had a loathesome feeling about Ivan and this spoilt any possible enjoyment I could get from the book.

The love story that quickly is generated is unbelieveable and you find yourself hoping Elizabeth goes for Benjamin her work colleague. I wont give the ending away, if on the offchance you read this!

Pricing & Availability
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A quick kelkoo search brings up the cheapest price on the internet to be £4.99 at play.com.

You can buy this book from any major book store, supermarket or Ebay/Amazon. It is freely available.


More Information available at www.ceceliaahern.ie

Summary: Chick Lit Gone Wrong.